The Washington Monthly‘s Steve Benen reports the painful answer, another reminder of how NBC’s long-running show puts the “status” in “status quo media”:

[Sunday]was Gingrich’s fifth appearance on “MTP” just this year. In fact, Newt Gingrich, despite not having held any position in government for over a decade, was the single most frequent guest on “Meet the Press” in 2009 of any political figure in the United States. Literally.

From March to December, Gingrich appeared on “MTP,” on average, every other month. No one else in American politics was on the show this often…..

Keep in mind, “Meet the Press” didn’t have the actual Speaker of the House on at all this year. It also featured zero appearances from all of the other living former House Speakers (Hastert, Wright, Foley) combined.

There’s just no reasonable explanation for this. Gingrich was forced from office in disgrace — by his own caucus — 11 years ago. What’s more, he’s kind of a nut — we’re talking about a former office holder who speculated, just last week, about hidden messages from God in snowstorms.

And yet, no other political figure was on “Meet the Press” more this year than crazy ol’ Newt Gingrich. If someone can explain why, I’m all ears.

It’s the same phenomenon that keeps George Will writing for the Washington Post and being a perpetual part of ABC’s This Week. The fact that Gingrich has stayed around is a sign of just how intellectually bankrupt the Republican Party is right now.

I read today that we maybe seeing the end of “free” TV due to ads going over to the internet and cable. I imagine that the news departments are the first to take the hit.

This country’s freedom was given to us above all by our fore fathers and mothers decision to embrace rational thought.

If so, then it won’t be long before witch doctors like Gingrich and Murdoch are running the show.

It amazes me that most folks who write into our local newspaper or are interviewed on TV seem to think that the downfall of the US is foreshadowed by gay marriage, the divorce rate etc. If dependable sources of information go, then so goes our society and freedom.

Gingrich’s white mane and professor resume have always obscured the fact that his is a mediocre and opportunistic mind. His talk about the environment and global warming was just as phony as his family values sermons.

Some excellent videos: type in “videos– climate change”, then go to the You tube one. Millions of people are going to die because of the fossil fuel industries and their payrollees. I’d like to ask them a question: “was it worth it? when you see millions die and realize it’s all because of your lies, was it worth it?

I don’t know what it takes for the media to become ashamed of itself. Or rather, I guess what really matters is that an effective majority of the population realize the media is a busted hand. I’ll take either result, but that’s where I’m going to focus my energy, on demonstrating the bankrupt integrity of the fourth estate – that’s all this is, and all it’s worth. Good to point it out.

The big conservative foundations including the Scaife and Bradley foundations, support a network of think tanks that serve as a sort of farm team and retirement program for people who have done the conservative cause services in the past.

Do a big enough service for the conservative cause, and you’re pretty much set for life, so long as you keep cranking out the “product” – conservative position papers, books, speaking engagements, and media appearances, IMO.

Employees of the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Institution, the Heritage Foundation, and the Cato Institute, among other such think tanks, get much more airtime, and appear before Congress much more often than their output justifies, I believe. The super rich sponsors of these think tanks like it that way, is the apparent reason.

The Heritage foundation and the American Enterprise Institute practically ran the Bush Administration, IMO, and had immense influence on Bush administration policies. This is part of what Hillary Clinton was talking about in her famous “vast right wing conspiracy” remarks, I think.

Here’s a link to the Media Matters Action Network Transparency page, formerly sponsored by Cursor, Inc. Their database of conservative foundation funding is invaluable (and unique) in tracing this sort of influence.

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is a senior fellow at AEI and a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Mr. Gingrich is a member of the Terrorism Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Commission on National Security, and an advisory board member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He is also a news and political analyst for the Fox News Channel, and writes a weekly newsletter for Human Events and a Friday column for The Washington Examiner. He is the author of twenty books, including The New York Times bestseller Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works (Regnery, 2008) and more recently To Try Men’s Souls: A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom (Thomas Dunne Books, 2009). Along with his wife Callista, Mr. Gingrich hosts and produces historical and public policy documentaries. Recent films include Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny, We Have the Power, Rediscovering God in America, and Rediscovering God in America: Our Heritage. Nine Days That Changed the World is currently in production and will be released in the next few weeks. Mr. Gingrich is the chairman of the Gingrich Group, founder of the Center for Health Transformation, and general chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future.

Because he’s an effective paid propagandist of an immensely influential paid propaganda network. He’s done huge services for that network, and enjoys the media access and the salaries that network provides.

Off the cuff, hasn’t Gingrich been more active and engaged than the other three living house speakers — they don’t show up on my radar as much as Gingrich does. Also, if you are very pro-business and good at giving lip service to various issues including environmental ones as I find Gingrich to be, then the corporatist media welcomes you.

This is just one of the more obvious examples of how the Democrats have allow the Republicans to begin stealing away their thunder just a few months after a historic election victory. After taking office they apparently decided: “Hey, we won, no reason for us to pound the publicity trail any longer.”

I’m sure the producers at MEET THE PRESS would have been absolutely *delighted* to have top members of the White House staff or Democrat congressional leaders drop by to chat with them on Sunday just as often as they wish in 2009. But since they couldn’t be bothered, guess who get plugged into the gap because he always looks good on camera and is always available on short notice: good old let’s-shut-down-the-government Newt.

This is how the Republicans have managed to make all the damage done by their party over the past 8 years now magically become entirely the fault of Obama and the Democrats in the public mind. Yes, they are darn good at the spin they do, but as always, the Democrats are bending over backward to help them do it.

I guess the progressives will never learn that eternal vigilance is the price of staying in power in Washington.